Many electronic devices utilize a display to visually relay information to a user. Conventional devices typically store the image data in system memory or graphics memory external to the display controller used to control the display. As a result, at each display refresh, external memory accesses are required to access the image data from the external memory and provide it to the display controller for processing. In many instances, however, the displayed image is refreshed infrequently, if at all, while the device is idle. To illustrate, cellular telephones often display a digital clock image with a signal strength icon when the phone is not in use for a voice call, where the digital clock image typically only changes, and therefore refreshed, only when a minute has elapsed (thereby changing the displayed time) or the signal strength changes (thereby changing the signal strength icon). Accordingly, the process of accessing image data from an external memory during idle periods when the image changes infrequently, if at all, typically results in unnecessary power consumption and a decrease in processing performance. Accordingly, an improved technique for accessing data representative of an image to be displayed would be advantageous.